highlights reel

JANUARY

Grace turned 11.  Also she was in "CATS", which took up a lot of our time but was so much fun!!

FEBRUARY

Grace again, she was in dancing feet, a ballroom dance group and they had their competition in February.  Super fun to watch!!

MARCH

Chelsea came to visit us for spring break! We loved having her here.  We did lots of CA stuff, but the best was going to Disneyland.  We enjoyed a one year season pass to Disney that we LOVE LOVE LOVED!!  We miss MD terribly and Chelsea especially so it was awesome to have her visit!

APRIL

Best trip ever.  Not only a monthly/yearly highlight but perhaps a lifetime highlight we went to Ireland and had an awesome trip!!

MAY

We went to Utah, and then brought Tatum back for a whole week!! Her mom came after to get her which led to another great visit.  It was super fun to have just her and it's super fun to see what good friends Grace and Tatum are!

bonus photo because these cute cousins got to come too!!

JUNE

 Family camping trip! We had a blast at the beach reliving the camping trips of my youth!

JULY

The kids went to Ohio to visit the grandparents and Rob and I had a northern CA getaway long weekend.  It was delightful!

AUGUST

Hannah turned 17 and got her drivers license!! Yay! No more seminary drives for me (for this year anyway)

SEPTEMBER

I got called to be the ward young women's president.  My favorite calling ever!

OCTOBER

The end of another great soccer season! We love love watching Ethan play soccer.

NOVEMBER

The priests and laurels and because they needed drivers and I am lucky enough to be their leader Rob and I went to hear Elder Bednar speak...in person! I know!!

DECEMBER

Christmas time brought more time with family.  Going back through our year I realized we saw each other a lot.  Almost every month! One perk to living on the west coast for sure!!

zoo day

I don't know why but neither Dani or Hannah were in any of the pictures. They were there and had a great time too.

 The zoo was fab-u-lous! The weather was warm and sunny!! We didn't get an early start to our day so when we got there it was crowded but not too bad.  We headed to the bird show first and saw some fun behaviors.

Next we went to the play ground and ate lunch and played.

 Unfortunately Marshall wasn't feeling well so he wanted to be carried most of the time, and he was sad.  I think he would have really enjoyed it if he didn't have a fever. :(

 We watched a lot of monkeys, the okapi, primates, birds and crocodiles.  I think most every one's favorite though was the giraffes!

We also got a snack.  Ice cream, icee's and cotton candy!

When we got home we made white bean and sweet potato soup which was warm and yummy.  

The only bummer was when Marshall threw up on the way home. Luckily it was close to home and we got him in, gave him a little bath, Dani cleaned the car seat (yuck) and after some dinner & Tylenol he seemed to perk up.

post Christmas

The days after Christmas have been spent playing with the family.  They have been wonderful, of course.  We've done some shopping.  Some movies watching.  Some going out to eat.

 Yesterday we went to Rockin Jump Place.  It was a really a great choice.  The kids bounced around for an hour and had a blast.  It wasn't too crowded and even Marshall had lots of things he could do.

Going out to eat is always a treat.  We went to IHOP, crowded! And Olive Garden...also crowded, hmm.

This morning we went to the park so that the kids could run around and mainly so Tatum could use her skates.  That was her favorite Christmas present and she's been skating around the house for 3 days now.  Going to the park was great because she got to zip around to her hearts content.

Grace has had a lot of helpers for her robot, which has been awesome.  It's a hard task for her so help and encouragement is needed.

The girls and I went to the movies and saw "Sing".   They loved it.  I thought it was fine.

 Carrie Fischer died today.  She was Princess Leia, a hero in our house.  She was only 60 so that's surprising & sad.

The girls love Grandpa's jeep.  Greg took them for a ride and Tatum wants to go out again.

Some of the gang went to Valencia today.  They went to the fancy mall and/or go karting, depending. Grandpa and I stayed home with the kiddos.  

Happy Holidays!!

Christmas Day in pictures